VIDEO: MAKING MUSIC AGAIN: Bridgewater-Raynham parents banded together to save music program

Monday

Jan 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 30, 2012 at 9:07 PM

When the music program in Bridgewater-Raynham schools was eliminated in the fall of 2004, parents stepped up to keep interest alive, volunteering their time to not only teach, but to raise money, and keep the kids playing, at least after school.

Amy Carboneau

Second of two parts.

SUNDAY: The Bridgewater-Raynham school district is rebuilding its music program piece by piece, with the help of local businesses, passionate teachers and eager students.

Elaine McBride thought nothing of putting on a pair of gloves and ripping through a trash bag for bottles and cans worth 5 cents each.

At the time, in 2005, McBride’s son was a drum major, her daughter an eighth-grader and budding musician. And the Bridgewater-Raynham music program had been relegated to an after-school activity.

She and other members of BRAHMS – the Bridgewater-Raynham Association for Helping Music Students – were doing everything they could think of to keep music alive for students.

When McBride joined the group in the late 90s, she said there were about 60 parent volunteers who raised money for the high school marching band to go to Disney World.

But membership in the parent organization dwindled as music in the schools was silenced with each budget cut.

“When things started going downhill, there were about five parents and a few students who would show up at meetings,” McBride recalled. She lasted just a year as club co-president.

“It was always a matter of budget cuts,” she added. “We were always sort of scrambling for ways to make money.”

But even at its lowest point, in the fall of 2004 when music was eliminated at the high school, parents kept some semblance of a program together. A core group of students continued to rehearse for jazz band and concert band under volunteer leadership. Chorus and the marching band, however, ceased to exist.

BRAHMS raised money not just for music scholarships anymore, but for the basics: new sheet music for students, just enough to help students keep their interest in music alive.

Camille MacArthur became BRAHMS co-president in 2004.

“When it got to the point where they really did cut the music program, that’s when we felt like we had to do something,” she said.

A mother of four boys, who has never played an instrument and says she can’t sing a tune, said she didn’t want the kids to lose out.

So parents and music students held can and bottle drives. At the Bridgewater Bottle and Can redemption center on Hale Street, “we would try to intercept people who would be willing to donate,” McBride said. “In some cases they were very happy to do so, in other cases not so much.”

They also sold “smencils” (scented pencils), which they bought for pennies and sold for a dollar each.

“Every little bit helped,” said MacArthur.

The most successful fundraiser each year was the poinsettia sale, which, McBride said, they had down to a science. They raised enough money each Christmas to fund two or three scholarships a year. Each scholarship was roughly $1,000-$1,500, said McBride, and given to any student who was actively involved in the high school music program for their effort to “keep the spirit going.”

At the high school, parent volunteer Anne Kelton, who McBride said taught music at a private school at the time, would gather students one day each week so that the students could still hold concerts.

“That was really great to have,” said Elaine McBride’s daughter, Mary, now 22, of the after-school class. “It was a really small group of us doing it, but it was better than nothing.”

Despite the struggle, Mary McBride, who now plays cello at Smith College, looks back fondly on her high school days.

“I think it kind of made me want to do it more because we kind of had to fight for it,” she said. “We kind of had to justify why music was important.”

Amy Carboneau may be reached at acarboneau@enterprisenews.com, or follow her on Twitter @amycarboneau.